Saturday, May 6, 2017 - This is what it looked like when Bill and Joel Plaskett finally took the stage at County Pop 2017. The rain was falling outside but the packed crowd inside the beautiful Crystal Palace were ready to witness a unique musical dream of a father-son combo that was years in the making. Playing songs together and with their backing band The Mayhemingways, the Plasketts took us on a trip through songs new and old. A perfect conclusion to a day filled with music, art, food and family.

Ella Jade joins Luther Wright and the Wrongs (photo by Bob Ullrich)

ARTISTS - A big thanks go out to all of our artists who performed as part of the show across two different stages including:

Special Thanks to Chris Loane for running our Songwriter's Stage, doing sound and helping everything run on time!

ART ON STAGE - Thanks very much to our Art on Stage installation provided by Suendrini. She uses recycled fabrics to create original pieces with environment theme. Her work for County Pop 2017 was entitled 'Long View Wonder' which was inspired by the golden James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and honeybees with their honeycomb hives, it places a spotlight on the scope and depth of the informed scientific consensus based upon truths that will echo for generations. Learn more about Suen's work - http://suendrini.com.

LEAD SPONSORS - Our lead sponsors provide the financial support that helps us to keep our ticket prices down and we thank them for that! Our lead sponsors this year included McKinney Re/Max, Parsons Brewing, Karlo Estates, County Cider, and The County.

FESTIVAL SPONSORS - Our festival sponsors help us make this event happen and provide the parts to make it work so well. We sincerely appreciate the support of The Regent Theatre, County FM 99.3, The Wellington Times, Bay of Quinte Tourism, Outside Music, Exclaim.ca, The Drake Devonshire, The Picton Harbour Inn, Frere Du Nord, Vintage Map Co, Books & Company, Kinsip Spirits, Mix 97, PELC, 91X Radio, County T-Shirts. The event was presented by Zunior.com.

Astrid Young plays the Songwriter's Stage (photo by Bob Ullrich)

VENDORS - Thanks to all of food vendors including Pizza Via, PICNIC, The Shore Oysters, and Lemonade Dave. Also thanks to our drinks vendors including Parsons beer, Karlo Estates wine, County Cider, and Kinsip Spirits.

STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS - Big thanks go out to the team that worked our front gate all day long including Jen Sills, Tammy Thompson, Sydney Ullrich and Helen Hawketts. Our front door greeter was Nicola Crenna. Much appreciation goes to our set up and tear down crew including Nick Ullrich, Steve Mee and all our front gate team. Thanks to Albert Ullrich for making the Arduino/Bluetooth-controlled County Pop logo, and Bob Ullrich for making the 2017 event commercial. The kids area was sponsored by The County and Krista Dalby from Small Pond Arts, along with Treese Moore, helped create a band of kids in cool handmade capes and face paint! Joel Yearsley from Kingston KSound provided the stage sound, along with help from Rich Taylor. Our backstage artist area was in the capable hands of Sheila Hughes as our official Sandbanks Music Festival Band Concierge, doing a great job to ensure the musicians had all the essentials. Thanks to Humble Bread, Pizza Via and PICNIC for providing backstage food for our artists. Thanks so much to Ken Hudson from County T-Shirts for creating our amazing 2017 poster! Thanks to AVNK Security from Peterborough for helping to make sure the event was safe and secure. A big thanks to Lisa Lindsay, Richard Lightfoot and all the facilities staff at the Crystal Palace for their support before, during and after the show. A tip of the the hat to Chris, Sam and the Parsons team for hosting a gathering at their brewery after the event. Thanks to Lori Farrington, Emily Sanderson and Helen Hawketts for working behind the scenes for months to help get this event together.

Swag Bags - The first 100 groups/families at the gate got one of our free natural cloth swag bags. Thanks to McKinney Remax for their sponsorship of the bags, and Isabelle Patton from Books & Company who helped us gather treats from these great local PEC businesses:

Please support these businesses and thank them personally for their support of live music in Prince Edward County. Thanks also go to Frere du Nord, Kinsip Spirits and Vintage Map Co for providing additional bonus gifts for our artist swag bags.

Prince Edward Learning Centre- The event itself serves to raise funds for Prince Edward Learning Centre, and $1 from every ticket sold goes to support the great work they do for literacy and education in The County.

FEEDBACK - We plan to do this again next year on Saturday, April 28, 2018 and we'd love to hear what you thought of the 2017 event, and what you might like to see next year. Please take a few minutes to feedback to just three key questions here:

We've got just a few County Pop 2016 t-shirts left and we're looking to sell them all! For just $10, you can buy one of these in a variety of the usual sizes for pick-up/purchase in downtown Picton at either PELC (206 Main St, Picton - (613) 476-1811), or Books and Company (289 Picton Main St, Picton -(613) 476-3037). $1 from every shirt will go to support PELC!

Send a note to dave@zunior.com if you have questions, or simply drop by PELC or Books and Company today!

County Pop T-Shirt (Front)

County Pop T-Shirt (Back Image)

So again, for just $10, you can buy one of these in a variety of the usual sizes for pick-up/purchase in downtown Picton at either PELC (206 Main St, Picton - (613) 476-1811), or Books and Company (289 Picton Main St, Picton -(613) 476-3037). $1 from every shirt will go to support PELC! Thanks for your support this year!

I love it when a plan comes together! Thanks so much to everyone for your support of our first-ever County Pop this past Saturday at the Crystal Palace! Everything went so well and the feedback on the event has been so positive.

This event was truly all ages, and it was so great to see families dancing, singing and simply hanging out on a such a beautiful day with the clear daylight streaming onto those historic walls of the Crystal Palace.

- The super cool led-fired and Arduino-controlled County Pop sign/lettering created by my brother Albert.

- The Crystal Palace staff for helping us run a safe, clean and fun event in such a beautiful building.

- $1 from every ticket purchased went to support the work of the Prince Edward Learning Centre. Thanks to them for supporting efforts to provide adult learning opportunties in PEC, and thank you for buying a ticket!

- Finally, I'd like to thank Lori Farrington, Helen Hawketts and Emily Sanderson for helping with event organization and execution on so many different levels, with so many different tasks.

Speaking directly with so many of you on Saturday, it was so great to hear your stories, comments and suggestions. Please keep them coming anytime by sending a note to dave@zunior.com. I'd love to know what you thought we did well, and what you think we could do better.

We believe that local business is the engine that drives growth and creates jobs in The County. We created our free County Pop Swag bag to provide an avenue for allow local County business owners to let you know about their business by promoting upcoming offers/products/events heading into the busy summer months.

Each swag bag was hand-crafted by Zunior.com's Dave Ullrich and they will given out at the end of the night, while supplies last, to each group/family. We hope the bag makes a great momento, and we know you'll love the treats are inside! The contents of our 2016 Swag Bag were generously provided by these great County companies:

We're getting very close to the very first County Pop festival on April 30! To celebrate occasion, we've created one last prize pack that you can win by purchasing your County Pop advance tickets online before April 29! Every person that buys advance tickets online right here is automatically entered to win and we'll make the draw on April 29 at noon.

Created by Ken Hudson of the County T-Shirt Company, this poster is a stunner! We plan to make just a few screen prints of this poster and one of them will be yours. Suitable for framing, this will look great on your wall for years to come.

2. A Vintage Map Pillow from County Cupboard

Created by Helen Hawketts of County Cupboard, this handmade down-filled pillow has a road map of Prince Edward County, circa 1932, printed on it.

3. #ZUNIOR toque

Zunior is making a brand toque that will be introduced at County Pop. Created in the style of the hat shown here, it is hand-knitted in Prince Edward County by Pat York. You will have one before anyone else!